Portland Seed Fund borrows Y Combinator concepts, pledges 'tough love' - <AUTHOR> http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/portland_seed_fund_pledges_tou.html <comment><USER2> They're taking the Y Combinator name in vain. They charge to apply and are just giving out loans? Another very entrepreneur unfriendly approach to boosting the startup environment in Portland.

So, let's summarize. Portland Angel Network charges, Oregon Angel Fund charges, Angel Oregon charges, Portland Ten charges and now the Portland seed fund charges.

Book me a ticket to the valley when I'm ready to pitch my next startup!

<comment><USER3> Very true, but in all fairness it would appear that Portland Ten is not in the same vein as the others listed, as they do not invest in your company.

However, I do think it is dishonest for everyone to be using the y-comb name recognition as a selling point for their own programs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> $250 just to get your application looked at? I think someone here is missing the point (or maybe the concept) of shoestringing.

</comment><comment><USER5> Their intentions are are right, but execution is all wrong.

Besides the "pay-to-play" aspect, most entrepreneurs will chafe at the tight leash they are under _if_ they are accepted into the program.

A bio-tech firm is going will definitely need more time than the typical Internet startup to gain traction.

The relationship between angel and entrepreneur should be more advisory than adversarial

</comment><comment><USER6> They must not want very good companies if they're promising to make life difficult for them before they even invest.

</comment><comment><USER7> The only thing that bothers me about this is that you must pay to apply. Even though the price is minimal I typically dont trust pay to pitch models.</comment>


Show HN: Ipregistry – A Fast, Reliable IP Geolocation and Threat API - <AUTHOR> https://ipregistry.co <comment><USER2> Maybe I missed it somewhere, but what is the threat data based on? Why should I trust it over Insert-X-Service-Here?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great question.

We rely on a set of trusted sources. It includes public ones but also private ones thanks to partnerships we have with a few companies. This enables accurate filtering.

Besides, we know that false positives are an important point to prevent. That's why we update our database continuously.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey hackers!

We started to work on Ipregistry.co at the end of the last year for other services we run. After months of work, we are proud to say that more than 60% of the requests we serve are using the high-reliability geolocation dataset we are building. For this purpose, we process, analyze and correlate GB of data daily. As a fallback, we are still using Maxmind and IP2location but we hope to get rid of them near the end of this year.

* What is it for?

A lot of businesses (e.g. Airbnb, Netflix, npmjs, Stripe) rely on IP addresses as a non-intrusive solution to customize content and enrich data for their users: showing prices in users' local currency, pinpointing location, timezone, company and connection type. You can learn more about use cases on the next link: [https://ipregistry.co/use-cases](https://ipregistry.co/use- cases)

* Why Ipregistry.co?

Existing solutions are either too slow, too expensive or not complete enough. Even worse, some competitors artificially segment features that cost them no pennies. Ipregistry aims to change this situation.

With Ipregistry you get more geolocation info but also threat information that is essential to detect and prevent fraud. You can even get user agent data. All this in a single request.

* What's the difference with existing competitors?

\- Data is updated multiple times a day for accuracy.

\- Ipregistry scales to thousand requests per second.

\- Reliability is ensured with multiple points of presence using the Google Cloud infrastructure.

\- Requests are served in less than 25 ms from most locations worldwide ([https://ipregistry.co/status](https://ipregistry.co/status)).

\- You can create multiple API keys to separate concerns.

\- You pay only for what you use lookup per lookup.

\- Payment methods include cards, Paypal and cryptocurrencies.

\- Upon registration, you get 100,000 free lookups for testing purposes.

\- A dashboard is provided to monitor your usage and configure settings.

\- Origin and IP filtering are supported with no extra fee.

\- You can receive weekly or monthly usage reports.

\- The API outputs JSON or XML.

\- Official client libraries are provided with caching support.

</comment><comment><USER3> Really neat and clean. We were looking for such a service these last days. Nice job guys!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your kind words. They are much appreciated!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Your service seems to compete with Ipdata.co. What's the difference?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your question. Indeed, ipdata is a competitor. We have published a recent blog post that compares them with our solution:

[https://ipregistry.co/blog/ipdata- alternative](https://ipregistry.co/blog/ipdata-alternative)

As a summary, you get responses in less time (our API is at least twice faster), more data points (company name, domain, IP type, security field is_cloud_provider). Our client libraries have support for caching. We provide a dashboard to check your usage and edit settings. Last but not least, you pay only for what you use lookup by lookup!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> An API is great but slow. Do you provide raw access to your database in CSV or other formats?

<comment><AUTHOR> We understand an API introduces latency that might not be appropriate for some use cases. At this time we do not provide raw access to our database (although that's something we aim to provide in the medium/long term). In the short term, we are working on a Docker image that you can deploy in your own infrastructure and co-locate with existing services.

Don't hesitate to contact us (email@example.com) to discuss your use case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> why cryptocurrencies?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great question. Unlike with traditional payment platforms (Stripe, Paypal, etc.), we pay no fees for transactions made with crypto currencies. As a consequence, we offer 3% more tokens to our customers for the same price!

<comment><USER5> What are you using for crypto payments? was the integration complex?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're using Coinbase Commerce ([https://commerce.coinbase.com](https://commerce.coinbase.com)).

Our experience was better with Coinbase than Paypal and we think it is as simple as Stripe, even if Stripe may require some work depending on what you want to achieve but their documentation is fantastic!

The worst solution from an integration point of view was Paypal. Their documentation is outdated, their dashboard UX is bad and their client libraries lack maintenance.

The only drawback we noticed while integrating Coinbase Commerce is that there is no testing flow provided. As a solution, we had to create a second account dedicated to testing and use real crypto.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Randal Schwartz Gives an Introduction to Git - <AUTHOR> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3999952944619245780 <comment><USER2> This is the talk I watched after Linus Torvalds' Google talk... the one that actually got me moving toward _using_ git. A very good talk.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for posting this - we've decided to use Git on our project, but there's still a lot we don't know about how to use it. For instance, finding out that we can send Git updates by email is welcome news!</comment>


Massively multiplayer online Flappy Bird - <AUTHOR> http://flapmmo.com/ <comment><USER2> It frankly startled me how much more fun and amusing this was than single player flappy bird. I immediately laughed out loud when I saw the first second or so of animation. Bravo!

I've recently decided that, for me, if a game design can't be reshaped to being shared with multiple people, I'd rather not make it. To me, games are at their best when they help create shared stories and memories for multiple people. This little thing has glints of promise.

<comment><USER3> > To me, games are at their best when they help created shared stories and > memories for multiple people.

Games like Skyrim and Broken Age are still incredible experiences that have thrived as singleplayer experiences. Ask yourself what you want when you talk about shared stories. Both games I mentioned have moments that can be recalled with other players, and while that isn't the same as a shared memory, players still have a shared experience on some level.

On a personal level I certainly lean towards creating shared memories in games I develop, whether with online multiplayer, racing ghosts, or "couch co-op." I think the elements of competition and cooperation are awesome, but I don't think you should dismiss singleplayer content just because of a desire to foster shared experiences.

<comment><USER4> I think that no game is really "single player" for that reason: there's almost always other people to share the experience with, even through non-electronic means. And of course the game creator is also a player - a metaphorical DM who is just not connected live.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is the best day of my life.

<comment><AUTHOR> You did say you'd have more time on your hands.

<comment><USER6> check out reverse flappy birds, its pretty hilarious

[http://kookiekrak.itch.io/flappy-pipes](http://kookiekrak.itch.io/flappy- pipes)

p.s. i put it on facebook too! (unity + fb integration is amazing)

[https://apps.facebook.com/flappypipes](https://apps.facebook.com/flappypipes)

<comment><USER7> FYI: Requires Unity Web Player.

googles "Unity Web Player" linux ... cries

P.S: I'm on Chrome and UWP is supposed to work on it, but it doesn't.

<comment><USER8> What's up with Unity? _The Linux desktop publishing preview is a work-in- progress._ It's been that way for a while. [http://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform/desktop](http://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform/desktop)

<comment><USER9> That page is referring to the native Linux binaries that Unity can export (which work great and has been available for a while). It's also quite stable so not sure why they're still calling it a preview.

The parent post is referring to the Unity web plugin for Linux which AFAIK does not exist at all (only Windows and Mac support for the browser plugin).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The phenomenon of this game absolutely boggles my mind. I've read all the articles about this game, and just can't seem to get how it got so popular so quickly. I feel like it's a just a giant troll or something, although I know that's not the case. Also, I still haven't understood the whole "Super Mario World" graphics rip of it?

<comment><USER11> I think Flappy Bird is a wonderfully well-tuned game. I've yet to see a clone that implements the finer details which made the original shine.

Many games introduce difficulty through complexity. Here's a game that's simple to grasp, hard to play, yet not boring or frustrating.

I wish this was acknowledged more often, as it might have made the developer feel more comfortable being associated with his game's meteoric success.

<comment><USER12> >I think Flappy Bird is a wonderfully well-tuned game. I've yet to see a clone that implements the finer details which made the original shine.

>Many games introduce difficulty through complexity. Here's a game that's simple to grasp, hard to play, yet not boring or frustrating.

I don't think Flappy Bird is any better tuned or has a better feel than any number of games. I have played many, many games far better on a Ti-85 and they don't even stand out.

And it is boring. There's no escalation or change over time. Once you can get to 50 you can get to 100 or 200. It's like bouncing a ball on a paddle and trying to get the highest score.

I would suggest [http://terrycavanaghgames.com/maverickbird/](http://terrycavanaghgames.com/maverickbird/) if you are looking for something better.

<comment><USER11> Right, to my taste it's a better game (though very differently tuned beyond the puck-through-a-gap idea).

More than anything I was trying to respond to the parent's question about why the game works at all, especially compared to so many bad single-switch games in the app store.

(In writing this I just realized - Maverick Brid is not a single switch game like Flappy Bird. Not that it matters - even without the dive key it's superior).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Since the site doesn't load, here's an article about it (with a screenshot.)

[http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/12/flapmmo-brings- non-c...](http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/12/flapmmo-brings-non-combat- gameplay-to-new-heights/)

<comment><USER14> And a video: [http://youtu.be/ahWF5pW6ZQw](http://youtu.be/ahWF5pW6ZQw)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This must be what it is like to be a sperm cell.

</comment><comment><USER16> The entire Dallas Linode went down at the same time as flapmmo.com. I think we took it down playing too much.

Edit: It's not a coincidence, they really are on Linode in Dallas...

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YkUAh7u...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YkUAh7upQnsJ:dawhois.com/domain/flapmmo.com.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

</comment><comment><USER17> edit: If creator is reading this:

Please remove the bubble around the players bird - you have to judge distances really carefully in this game, and the bubble makes it even harder.

Also the rotation animation in this version is distracting. The original Flappy Bird only rotated slightly (nose tipping up slightly while flapping) unless really diving fast.

Good fun though.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not the creator, I just saw this on my Twitter feed and posted it here. :)

<comment><USER17> Ah ok, the creator was on here yesterday I think when they posted a demo version - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7217339](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7217339)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, it has a domain now - that'll be why HN didn't stop me posting a dupe..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The only winning move is not to play.

</comment><comment><USER19> The code for this is impressive. 2131 characters total to establish a connection to a server, send back and forth game state, and then have an actual game on top of it.

As much as I despise trying to engineer large team projects in JS, this is a great example of what JS _is_ good at.

</comment><comment><USER20> Is this game generating any data? Like, what's the % of birds that die on the first pipe? The distribution of scores?

</comment><comment><USER21> I can clearly see how FB became popular. There's something to extreme difficulty and simplicity.

</comment><comment><USER22> So much fun to see the "natural selection" at work (for a lack of a better word)

</comment><comment><USER23> Might I ask what is the stack behind this?

<comment><USER24> If you look at the source which is only ~200 SLOCs, it's just written in vanilla js for the canvas and Websocket which receives a simple arrayBuffer binaryType.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Think we killed the server. :\

</comment><comment><USER26> This seems to be trying live communication with the server, but all you really need is to load a bunch of previous playthroughs and overlay them. This should make gameplay a lot smoother. Then after each death, upload a record of the keypresses and the nickname.

Or maybe I missed the point.

<comment><USER7> What you described is called Run In Crowd, except no constant tapping, but only when there is a ditch to fall through.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> At least in this version, as far as I got (6 pipes in), the gap between the pipes was always less than the height of a jump, making the game a trivial matter of timing your jump exactly when the bird is nearly touching the bottom pipe.

There is no strategy in positioning yourself and taking alternate gaps. There are no alternate gaps to begin with. The whole game is just an exercise in timing, like a quick-time event of the sort where you need to stop a moving indicator in a given range.

It would fit as a way to grant an attack bonus in e.g. Super Mario RPG or Paper Mario.

1/10 - it's a real-time multiplayer qte in javascript and that's kind of cool

</comment><comment><USER28> E.prototype.collidesWith = function() { return false };

</comment><comment><USER29> Somewhat unrelated, but does anyone know of a good javascript/HTML5 framework for creating multiplayer games? I posted a similar question on the Godot Engine thread the other day, but there weren't any obvious candidates.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7209149](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7209149)

</comment><comment><USER30> It looks like a school of fish that are slightly out of sync in space-time with each other.

But seriously, this is all the game was about? Really?

<comment><USER31> Everyone else was playing it :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Is that how real thing worked? It is really addictive. I heard about controversy but never played the game. P

</comment><comment><USER33> For a second I though the URL was fapmmo.com. I assume that would be something completely different.

</comment><comment><USER34> That's pretty awesome. Always have to give props to the folks who build epic stupid projects...

</comment><comment><USER35> This is actually extremely hilarious, especially seeing how everyone else is doing, well done!

</comment><comment><USER36> Alas, I am too late: "Server doing weird things, come back tomorrow. "

</comment><comment><USER37> I thought Flappy Bird was hard until I play this game. Another FlappyBird variant that is also hard to play

[http://roguelikegames.com/flappy-typing](http://roguelikegames.com/flappy- typing)

</comment><comment><USER38> Sarcastic comment about 'massively multiplayer' and the server crash.

</comment><comment><USER39> Took me forever (~10 seconds) to figure out I had to press up to work the bird.

<comment><USER40> Or spacebar!

<comment><USER41> Or any key!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Aww no! The person took this down because they couldn't handle its success!

</comment><comment><USER43> Argh, someone beat us to it. We have a massive-multiplayer tournament planned for Saturday: [http://ddnet.tw/#news](http://ddnet.tw/#news)

</comment><comment><USER44> ITS BRILLIANT, anyone had the chance to sneak peak or actually know what kind of websocket server are they using for the mmo implementation on this? would be nice to try it out

</comment><comment><USER45> This is actually really, really fun. I wish I could land the bird and hang out with all the cool birds who have made it past a few pipes.

In fact, add chat to it would be really cool :-D

</comment><comment><USER46> I somehow managed to get into a hypnotic flow and pass like ten or fifteen pipes.

Never ever before I have felt this much like being the world wide number one at something. Awesome.

</comment><comment><USER47> What would be really cool is if someone could take all the user keystroke timing data, with the distance calculations and do some ML to build an optimized route.

</comment><comment><USER48> Website is offline.

</comment><comment><USER49> A. I really wish it was up for me to play it. B. I really wish they'd at least match the original's flap rate a little closer.

<comment><USER50> [http://18.104.22.168/](http://22.214.171.124/) works for me.

<comment><USER51> This seems to keep resetting me before I hit anything.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> Strangely exhilarating when I got to 20 and I was at the front of the flappy pack. Definitely gonna wast some time on this today.

</comment><comment><USER53> If you make it past 1000 the pipes disappear.

</comment><comment><USER54> [http://www.flappy-bird-multiplayer.com](http://www.flappy-bird- multiplayer.com)

yea I made 50 score

</comment><comment><USER55> Still haven't gotten to try this, heh. Better failing to scale up than scaling too early, right?

</comment><comment><USER56> It's hard to concentrate on your own flapping when everyone else is flapping at the time.

</comment><comment><USER57> There is Hieronymus Bosch-ian quality to this beautiful, beautiful sacrilege.

</comment><comment><USER40> The only way this could get any better would be to have player collision.

</comment><comment><USER58> The websites down I guess.

</comment><comment><USER59> Neato. This would work on iOS if it registered taps/clicks.

</comment><comment><USER60> Cool but the controls make me want to punch a dolphin.

</comment><comment><USER61> Seems a whole load of lemmings jumping off the cliff!

</comment><comment><USER62> hahaha this is amazing. Thank you whoever made this.

</comment><comment><USER63> Praise on you, this is really a clever and fun idea.

</comment><comment><USER64> Page doesn't load MMO didn't scale #lol.

</comment><comment><USER65> It doesn't work at all (Firefox 26.0).

</comment><comment><USER66> Love it! Hope the server holds up though.

</comment><comment><USER67> Site dead now?

<comment><USER68> Seems to be so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> Should add guns to kill other birds.

</comment><comment><USER70> Awesome. How was this built?

</comment><comment><USER71> I want Flappy Marbles 3D

</comment><comment><USER72> Personal Best: 6

<comment><USER73> Personal Best: Still loading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> High Scores?

</comment><comment><USER75> CRASHED!

</comment><comment><USER76> lol! Great!

</comment><comment><USER77> Really? This is what all the flap is about? This is awful. It's almost impossible to get passed the first set of pipes because the a single click makes the bird jump half the height of the screen. Is the mobile app just as unusable?

<comment><USER78> The mobile version is even less usable, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

<comment><USER79> This version is actually much more difficult than the mobile version.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Parallel Programming Languages - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone used any parallel programming languages such as NESL or Cilk?  I am in particular interested in languages that abstract away threads and focus on irregular problems.  Bonus points if it includes some kind of hashtable data structure. <comment><USER2> I used cilk in college to code some throw-away examples. I liked it for what it's worth. I also tried learning Erlang for a week, and really dug its execution model and the way the language felt in general. I was using Armstrong's book for that.</comment>


Richard Stallman calls Ubuntu "spyware" because it tracks searches - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/richard-stallman-calls-ubuntu-spyware-because-it-tracks-searches/ <comment><USER3> Reading what he is talking about, Stallman's description is absolutely correct. If I am doing a desktop search for local files, it is not be expectation that that search will be transmitted to servers without my consent, and that it does so makes it spyware even if we don't also take into consideration that it is being done to track my interests for monetary gain in the form of referral links. Good on him for calling attention to this functionality.

<comment><USER4> > Use Super-A. You can tell Unity exactly what you want to search. And in > future you'll be able to do that from the home lens, too, more easily than > the current Lens Bar at the bottom of the Dash.

From <http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182>

It sounds like they're working to expand the search functionality with users' best interests in mind, not adding advertisements as everyone seems to think.

> it is being done to track my interests for monetary gain in the form of > referral links

They're just search results, not ads. Read the blog post from Shuttleworth.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. The article states _"If a user buys something from Amazon as a result, money is sent to Canonical in the form of affiliate payments."_ Is the article in error, or has the behavior changed in response to criticism, or do the amazon links have Canonical affiliate codes?

The last seems to be the correct answer - affiliate links are used. I see no evidence Stallman is incorrect and the Shuttleworth blog article does not say they don't use affiliate links.

[http://askubuntu.com/questions/192725/how-do-i-make-sure- tha...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/192725/how-do-i-make-sure-that- canonical-get-affiliate-benefits-when-i-buy-from-amazon)

> _The Amazon affiliate referral happens if you've arrived at the Amazon > property via a 'tagged' link. Both links clicked via the dash which go to > Amazon sites, and the shortcut in the launcher will add the tag. The tag > adds a cookie which lasts for 24 hours. If you buy anything during that > period, Canonical will get some affiliate revenue._

<comment><USER4> I'm actually not sure after reading both again -- Shuttleworth seems to imply that they're not doing this for money, but he doesn't explicitly say it.

Either way, these search results are distinctly different from the ads in the launcher that people were talking about a couple weeks ago, but everyone seems to be mixing the two up.

Both can be easily disabled, though. And searching your own machine is still an option.

<comment><USER5> > Shuttleworth seems to imply that they're not doing this for money, but he > doesn't explicitly say it

What else would Amazon referrals be about, if not money?

<comment><USER6> You can do things for more than one reason. They can think these results will be beneficial to users _and_ help keep Canonical solvent.

<comment><USER7> I find it very hard to believe that anyone, let alone the presumably technologically proficient people at Canonical, would actually think that sponsored search results are useful. When was the last time anyone clicked a sponsored Google result?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Richard Stallman is absolutely correct in calling this spyware. At the very least, this "feature" should be off by default.

<comment><USER9> God, it pains me to click the "upvote" button on a comment that begins "Richard Stallman is absolutely correct", but the second sentence was so correct that I had to. ;-)

<comment><USER10> RMS is usually correct. Annoying, offensive, unpragmatic, undiplomatic and confrontational, but in the end he's usually right in his basic analyses of the problem. Often well before anyone else even recognizes there is a problem.

<comment><USER11> No. He's completely off his nut about blobs, cloud computing and a host of other topics. Very few people use a distribution that he doesn't have issues with.

<comment><USER12> Your third sentence doesn't support your second.

I use closed source software, but that doesn't mean I think he's wrong on his overall analysis of its downsides.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For those who want to avoid this crap, there's a simple solution: come to Xubuntu. You can avoid spyware and at the same time get a simple, straightforward desktop UI without any modern "tablet" or "phone" UI flourishes: <http://i.imgur.com/6fF0C.png>

<comment><USER14> Or, you know,

        sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

<comment><USER15> But the point is the fact that Canonical made the decision to enable this by default breaks my trust in them. What are they going to do next? How am I going to monitor to make sure I know what I need to remove/disable/opt-out of next? If I choose an Ubuntu variant how do I monitor them to check that they aren't adding any of the parent undesirable features.

That is why when I decide to change from 12.04 it will almost certainly be to another distro. Maybe I need to give the parent distro a try (Debian).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> When money overtakes morale it becomes Ubuntu. Since long Ubuntu has been trying to avoid the Linux identity. Its a good call from Stallman bringing out Ubuntu's real motive is/will be few years down the line.

Switched to Arch Linux since 2008 (that's when Ubuntu was spelt around the globe) and I'm happy about the decision.

<comment><USER17> Can you recommend me a setup for using Arch as a desktop? Eg: which UI should I install?

Do things like sound, video, usb, etc work fine?

<comment><USER13> > Can you recommend me a setup for using Arch as a desktop? Eg: which UI > should I install?

xmonad is probably the best option.

> Do things like sound, video, usb, etc work fine?

USB works by default. I'm not sure why people even ask this anymore.

You will have to configure sound (easy, usually works by default) and video (not too bad these days) yourself.

Keep in mind that the Arch Installation Framework (an ncurses-based installer) has been deprecated, as of earlier this year. That means you will have to follow the Installation Guide[0] to manually set up the system from a live command line, Gentoo-style.

0: <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide>

<comment><USER17> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Relatedly, the default Ubuntu install of Firefox (including in the *ubuntus, like Xubuntu) ensure that everything you type into the location bar (even if you know exact URLs and don't plan to search!) is sent to Google, Wikipedia, and various other websites. The only way to turn it off, afaict, is to uninstall the Ubuntu extensions from Firefox---which is not at all obvious.

<comment><USER19> Any way you have some proof? I At this point I honestly don't doubt it, but I'd like to see some technical data.

<comment><USER18> Just personal experience. When I installed Xubuntu 12.10 (not an upgrade---it was on a machine previously running MacOS only), every time I started to type a URL into Firefox's location bar, the popdown list would include not only history and bookmarks, but results that you'd get from searching google and wikipedia for the sequence of letters typed so far. It updated after every keypress. In the Firefox preferences, the only relevant config option (that I found) was to suggest either/both/none of history and bookmarks, but turning that to "none" meant you _only_ got the search results. Turning off the Ubuntu extensions also turned off the extra search results, so I'm hoping that it also stopped sending my info and didn't just start doing it silently.

<comment><USER19> Good to know. I'll look into it and add it as a suggestion to remove it on my Ubuntu tips/tricks website. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> When stuff like this happens it's really easy to get involved and voice your opinion by switching gears, that is the beauty of open source.

 _Ubuntu Forks_.

<http://xubuntu.org/>

<http://www.kubuntu.org/>

<http://www.linuxmint.com/>

<http://www.sabayon.org/>

 _Other Disto's_.

<http://www.mageia.org/en/>

<http://fedoraproject.org/>

<https://www.archlinux.org/>

<http://www.opensuse.org/>

etc..etc

<comment><USER21> I know this could go on, but I think Debian should be mentioned. The Ubuntu team themselves refer to it as "the rock upon which Ubuntu is built."

<http://www.debian.org/>

<comment><USER22> Debian is a great distribution. In fact, my first Linux was a Debian and I'm still running it on the server. On the desktop I'm using Fedora though - <USER2> no obvious reasons. It's just the one I stopped with when I was trying out distros.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I think the phrasing of this title is poor. It seems to imply that Stallman's statement is ridiculous, yet most people (and the definition of spyware) seem to agree that this feature is is in fact spyware.

</comment><comment><USER24> Stallman is right about this in my opinion. I think if the feature isn't either opt-in, or removed, in 13.04 then Ubuntu is going to lose a great deal of credibility, especially amongst its long time supporters. With 12.10 they can claim that it's something experimental rushed in at the last moment which needs refinement.

Both Mark Shuttleworth's and Jono Bacon's blog responses to this issue have been below the standard that I would have expected. Shuttleworth made a silly comment about Canonical having root on Ubuntu machines already and Jono described the Stallman's comments as "childish".

</comment><comment><USER25> I understand Canonicals intentions: with everything going "cloud" and "online" it makes total sense to offer just one search box instead of two. It's easy, it's convenient.

However it sends your input to a third party or maybe parties in the future. You no longer control your data. Is it even encrypted? Who can see what you are searching? Your family, your provider, everybody on your wifi?

It's not about ads in the first place, it's about data protection, trust and user interfaces.

However this isn't Ubunut, this is just Canonical Unity. I'd just install gnome-shell/kde/xfce/... and be done with it.

</comment><comment><USER26> Hmm... this gives me an idea for a browser plugin: For anything you buy on Amazon, it automatically adds an affiliate link for your favorite charity or organization in, giving them a tiny touch of revenue.

<comment><USER27> Perhaps the UK Inland Revenue could use this and affiliate links to get some money out of Amazon as they're not getting much out of them through actual taxes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> There's a switch to shut the offending "feature" off.

Not good enough for Stallman, but definitely gave me a sigh of relief.

<comment><USER29> Why not make said switch default to off?

<comment><USER30> Because the NSA wants it on. And what makes you think the switch works?

Where do you think these features come from? Windows has it and probably put it in for the NSA, Google has it and works with the NSA as equal partners. When I first read and saw these enhanced search subsystems in Windows and Linux that built search databases by scanning the system's file contents and saw how much cpu they used I immediately said to myself "Somebody's searching for something and it isn't me!"

Furthermore I've always believed that Ubuntu was an NSA front from its very inception.

(Puts tinfoil hat back on).

<comment><USER31> "And what makes you think the switch works?"

Now, correct me if I'm wrong here... but isn't Ubuntu open source?

<comment><USER32> The fact that Ubuntu is open source wouldn't change anything _if_ those things were true. Just because you can look at the source does not mean you're looking at the source of the code you're running, because you almost certainly did not compile the whole Ubuntu distribution from the source, rather than that, 99+% users just downloaded the precompiled iso and installed from the official binaries, where a backdoor could slip by and you'd be none the wiser even if you did the insane task of reading all of the code you're running (which is not possible for a single human being) and then there's also the fact that you can slip a backdoor that even a great programmer wouldn't necessarily notice at a glance while looking at the sources, so there is that.

The crux of the matter is, you can't trust your computer. Even if you did trust nearly every single human being involved in the process, it just takes a compiler writer to break the chain of trust. <http://cm.bell- labs.com/who/ken/trust.html>

<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheKenThompsonHack>

<comment><USER33> Can't you compile the source, run a checksum on all the files respective files and check if they're identical for both versions?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I want a screensaver that turns this feature on, generates tons of fake queries then turns the feature back off so i don't accidentally send them anything real. :)

<comment><USER35> You can turn off the feature.

<comment><USER34> yeah (and i get your underlying point), but a "screwbuntu" protest screensaver would be a more fun and pro-active way to show disapproval of opt-out tracking, imo.

<comment><USER36> Such an application would need to use search terms drawn from the collected works of Richard Stallman, and the Free Software Foundation of course.

The application would also need to be available from the Software Centre...

PS: I use Gnome Ubuntu Remix 12.10 and I have donated to Ubuntu

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Turning it off: Super > search for 'Privacy' > under the 'Search Results' tab > switch 'Include online search results' off

<comment><USER38> So they know when you are searching to disable it, huh?

<comment><USER39> Remove your computer from the network first.

Done.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> It's too bad Ubuntu isn't open source so someone could just recompile the application without support for the feature...

<comment><USER41> It's too bad Canonical thinks they have a right to my data on my own machine. WTF, Canonical?

<comment><USER42> I was especially appalled when Mark Shuttleworth's response was something to the effect of, "Look - you should trust us absolutely - we practically have root access to your machines". That's not a good attitude. I originally switched away from Ubuntu because I didn't like the stuff I saw getting pushed to my machine in updates.

<comment><USER43> That actually isn't what he said at all. He did not say "you should trust us". He said "you do trust us". There is a considerable difference. Here is the full question and answer.

Q: Why are you telling Amazon what I am searching for?

A: We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf. Don't trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already. You trust us not to screw up on your machine with every update. You trust Debian, and you trust a large swathe of the open source community. And most importantly, you trust us to address it when, being human, we err.

<http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182>

<comment><USER44> I would trust Ubuntu not to push down damaging updates that it would be impossible for them to do without it being discoverable.

I would not trust them to hold on to my personal data with no way of knowing what they are going to do with it.

"You do trust us" is a classic false dichotomy fallacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I see both sides of this issue. But I also see the end user's point of view. As an Android user, I like that I can press the search button and essentially search all of my apps & the web at once. Personally, I see this as an okay feature.

On a side note, are Amazon results shown only if one is using the Amazon application for Ubuntu? I use Amazon frequently, but not the Ubuntu application and I've never seens Amazon results. (On Ubuntu 12.10)

</comment><comment><USER46> I remember the first 4 digits of my credit card and I want the whole of it. I do a search and "boom" the first 4 digits of my credit card are online.

</comment><comment><USER47> Isn't spyware you don't have to use and can uninstall just software with a feature you do not desire? I'm completely against the feature, but I don't see why something must be done about it? Feel free to add whatever features to your software you like, so long as nothing requires me to use it. There are plenty of linux distros, desktop environments, etc.

Edit: typo.

</comment><comment><USER48> I love Kubuntu right now. It's everything that is good about Ubuntu without the new undesirable additions.

<comment><USER49> I gave it a short try and was semi impressed. However it has too much latent load for me to consider it a good idea on a laptop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> It's a shame that the ridiculous amount of hyperbole involved in anything that Stallman seems to say these days is probably reducing his stature among the tech community and the history books. IMO his opinions would be more constructive if he tones it down every now and then.

<comment><USER51> It has been this way as long as I've been cognizant of his views; he has always been something of a radical. It just used to be that there was one predominant party at which to take aim (Microsoft). Now there are dozens of targets that have sprung up, which legitimately deserve some of the criticisms he levels against them: the walled gardens of cell phone ecosystems, rampant DRM, and opaque social media sites for which your data is their primary source of revenue. As more of our lives continually revolve around digital media, there are more opportunities for abuse. Stallman has been rigidly consistent in his basic message over the years, and he has never been particularly constructive.

<comment><USER52> _he has never been particularly constructive_

yeah. i mean except for the part where his actions directly lead to one of the most significant changes in technology in a generation.

<comment><USER51> Yes, I should have said, not constructive in his criticisms, but you are right, he has done a ton of stuff outside of his public speaking that has been huge and actually belies my statement to a large extent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Just use Mint!

<comment><USER54> I prefer LMDE and to skip the Ubuntu derivation.

<comment><USER55> How different are the two (if you've used the Ubuntu version as well, that is)?

I've got my family running Linux Mint, and they find it suits their purposes (as any well-designed mainstream Linux distro these days should!). I've been wondering if it's worth switching them over to the Debian-based version the next time I upgrade it, though.

(Linux Mint encourages the "Windows-style" upgrade - ie, back up your data, then install over, and restore, so it wouldn't be that much more work than upgrading to the latest version of the Ubuntu branch).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Does Ubuntu all you to turn this feature off?

If so, I don't have a problem with it.

<comment><USER57> Consider this: How many searches did you do before you became aware that this was introduced in one of the 384 software upgrades you installed in the past 4 months?

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> Anyone knows how much money they need / are planning to get through this? Perhaps a crowd-sourcing campaign could be organized to match that?

Or is this a long-term plan creating an Ama$on O$?

</comment><comment><USER59> Aw, man. I just started checking out Ubuntu from using another flavor of linux for years.

The setting can be turned off I just hope it's in an easy to find blog post.

<comment><USER36> Just go to system settings and look for privacy or something similar. There is an actual control.

You can also remove the software that provides the Amazon search.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> Why didn't he protest Apport? It sends data to Cannonical (with users content but that does not matter in his argument)

<comment><USER61> there is a large moral difference between opt in and opt out. With opt in, the consent is explicit, with opt out, the consent is assumed to be implicit, but user ignorance often means they have no idea that its happening at all, thus cannot be said to have consented.</comment></comment>


New Features in Qt 5.12 - <AUTHOR> https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.12 <comment><AUTHOR> > Qt QML: The JavaScript engine now supports ECMAScript 7

Wow, I'm so exited about this. I was often frustrated by QML because it supported ES5 only. I want to try the ES7 in QML as soon as possible.

<comment><USER2> Can't you use Babel to compile your code to ES5?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, QML is a language on top of JS. We need a Babel plugin that can parse the whole QML syntax first, which doesn't exist AFAIK.

<comment><USER3> What has your experience been like using QML? How does the experience compare to something like Electron?

I'm interested in making a cross-platform program but I don't want to be writing any C++.

<comment><AUTHOR> I learned PyQt(Python+Qt) and QML while making a stupid Linux app just for my own need [1]. QML is a very cool language for GUI development. Like ReactJS, QML is declarative and reactive but has a very clean syntax. Here is an example of a single-button app using QML:

      import QtQuick 2.9
      import QtQuick.Controls 1.3

      ApplicationWindow {
        title: "Example"
        visible: true
        width: 300
        height: 300

        Button {
            text: "Button"
            anchors.centerIn: parent
            onClicked: console.log('Hello')
        }
      }

You can see how clean it is. The main idea of PyQt+QML is writing JS(QML) code for GUI frontend and Python for backend. The downside (for web dev) is QML has vanilla JS only: no HTML5 API, no DOM, no NodeJS API. So you cannot take advantage of npm packages.

So the decision tree is quite simple: If you don't want spend time on learning something other than HTML+CSS than go Electron, if you are willing to try much more native app then go Qt+QML.

[1]: [https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen](https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen)

<comment><USER3> Thankyou. That's exactly the info I needed to know and couldn't find with a decent amount of internet searching. The Qt website/docs could really use an overview like that.

It sounds like I'd be writing mainly Python but using JS as a markup language. QML does look clean, and kinda reminds me of Dart/Flutter, which is another technology I'm considering. The desktop framework is still in its infancy, though.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Animals, plotted by Intelligence and Tastiness - <AUTHOR> http://www.mdaniels.com/animals/

<comment><USER2> "Fish" is a too broad category, it includes salmon, tuna, hake, ... (both for intelligence and tastiness)

Also:

> _Tastiness is based on informal polling of myself and friends._

I doubt they have really tasted dolphin, rats, ...</comment>


Chrome 62 Released with OpenType Variable Fonts, HTTP Warnings in Incognito Mode - <AUTHOR> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-chrome-62-released-for-linux-mac-and-windows/ <comment><USER2> The HTTP warnings of "not secure" is an excellent idea, presumably in the next couple or releases it will happen for all HTTP pages in Normal mode as well. Honestly, I wish they'd speed it along: HTTP is not secure, and you should tell your users that. If the users complain to a site that "my browser said your site is not secure!", hopefully it will spur some sites along to fixing it. It is, after all, a totally valid complaint.

It's 2017, there's absolutely no reason why every single webpage you visit shouldn't be encrypted. The browser makers have the power to make it so, and they should. There's too much legacy HTTP servers out there to go nuclear with the full warning page (like you get for invalid certificates), but the browser should at least tell the users, very clearly, the fact that they're taking a risk.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Chrome for Android now supports Widevine L1, allowing sites to play encrypted media in a secure way."

Really? If I want visitors to play encrypted videos in a secure way, I serve them through HTTPS using a codec that does not have patent issues!

Widevine is not a matter of allowing anything. This sentence is an horrible way to describe what it is for.

Good article otherwise, except for the annoying top bar.</comment>


Imgur Is Bad Now - <AUTHOR> https://vicki.substack.com/ <comment><USER2> It's a paywalled article and the link don't even lead there, instead on the landing page.</comment>


Study connects low social engagement to amyloid levels and cognitive decline - <AUTHOR> https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-social-engagement-amyloid-cognitive-decline.html <comment><USER2> "Study connects"... please. Correlation is not causation.</comment>


Is it important to code away from work - <AUTHOR> I ran across this article with a developer thinking that not coding or learning at home was a good to learn.  Do you think it is important to code/learn in your spare time? Does programming only at work make someone a better programmer.  https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/08/06/learning-at-work/ <comment><USER2> Knowing more ways of tackling more problems makes you a better programmer. The more difference there is between what you do at home and what you do at work, the more you will learn. If at work you write C/C++/Java, learn Haskell at home. If you do GUIs at work, do low level coding at home. (And vice versa, of course.) Me, I play with SMT solvers at work and I build my own keyboards at home.</comment>


Ask HN: I had two different credit cards stolen – another data breach? - <AUTHOR>

I had two different credits card numbers stolen and there were unauthorized charges on both in the last week. Both cards were cancelled right away. Both cards were rarely ever used, one was a credit card and was used to regularly pay my WOW Cable bill. The other was a debit card and was used once to pay my WOW Cable/Internet bill online. I suspect that WOW Cable/Internet's online bill pay system or processor was somehow hacked. I told WOW about my suspicions but they blew me off.  I'm not sure what to do at this point or if there's anything else that can be done. <comment><AUTHOR> After further investigation, it was in fact WooThemes that leaked my credit card details not WOW Cable.</comment>


Interesting analysis of a malicious PDF. - <AUTHOR> http://www.corelan.be:8800/index.php/2010/11/18/malicious-pdf-analysis-from-price-zip-to-flashplayer-exe/

<comment><USER2> Worth noting, Adobe launched Reader X two days ago, which they claim has a "sandbox" design that prevents attacks such as these.

[1] [http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9197230/Adobe_launche...](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9197230/Adobe_launches_sandboxed_Reader_X)

</comment><comment><USER3> Google web cache for those who can't get to non-standard ports: [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:E3WJ19...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:E3WJ19z5840J:www.corelan.be:8800/index.php/2010/11/18/malicious- pdf-analysis-from-price-zip-to-flashplayer-exe/+malicious-pdf-analysis-from- price-zip-to-flashplayer-exe&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)

Some more interesting tidbits on how to write exploits: [http://x9090.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-exploit- writting-...](http://x9090.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-exploit-writting- tutorial-from.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> Why is this being served over port 8800?

<comment><USER5> Because you can run your HTTP server on any port you want.

<comment><USER4> That doesn't really answer my question.

<comment><USER5> Maybe the user has an Internet provider with one of those stupid policy where TCP port 80 is closed as inbound. And he used a TCP high port to be able to host his/her HTTP server.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


On Intelligence in Cells: The Case for Whole Cell Biology (2009) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.brianjford.com/a-ISR_Ford.pdf <comment><USER2> There's a whole lot wrong with this paper, but I think that the biggest is that it is attacking a giant fantasy—the idea that biology above the molecular level has been abandoned. As well as the fact that the subfields of biology that aren't molecular biology and biochemistry still exist as active fields of study and research, a lot of what people working in molecular biology and genetics are doing is looking at the relationship between low-level processes and higher-level structure and activity.

<comment><USER3> This. The authors point is analogous to "we shouldn't do the census because everything is a result of human activity, and humans are really smart". Well... people study psychology and others study economics. As computational and modeling power goes up we have the newfound ability to blend the micro and macro further. But historically this wasn't the case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Kind-of a bummer article for what I think is a very good point (that I'm not actually sure he is trying to make). Current models based on biological principals are starting at a level of complexity which is emergent from a more foundational level which is ignored in our currently best performing models.

There is a strong argument for understanding 'mind' or 'intelligence' at a cellular level. Neural networks were originally inspired by how we thought brains work; a highly connected network. Within this framework, it was kind-of ignored that the fundamental units of this network themselves have 'mind' (intelligence? sense of self?) and at least the ability to change their behavior (outputs) based on what they sense from their environment (inputs). Currently, we train NN based on training data, but once trained, the network is 'fixed', in that we've come up with some optimal set of weights and biases that don't change. Biological networks don't work like this. Individual units within biological networks can individually adjust their behavior, based on external inputs both from other cells in the network and external to whole network (environmental) inputs. I would argue that there has been a strong bias in cell biology (especially human cell biology) against attributing individual cells with 'mind' or a sense of self; however, this obviously can not be the case, since most of the diversity of life is unicellular.

I think there would be a strong benefit to considering the ideas of 'cells' and compartmentalization in regards to how we design and engineer intelligent systems: we know that fundamentally, this is at least part of how cells work.

<comment><USER5> > Current models based on biological principals are starting at a level of > complexity which is emergent from a more foundational level which is ignored > in our currently best performing models.

Not really. It's too complex, we understand too little, and there's very little reason for it, since intelligence is not a property which is encoded in a neuron, but an emergent property, emerging from the interactions between them and the development of the network.

It's a bad idea for the same reason that if you want to simulate the aerodynamic properties of an airplane, you don't start with string theory.

> Individual units within biological networks can individually adjust their > behavior, based on external inputs both from other cells in the network and > external to whole network (environmental) inputs.

You don't need to start from the cellular level to achieve this though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Wow. Cells are machines made of molecules. Saying we shouldn't study molecular biology is like saying that it's a waste of time for electrical engineers to understand transistors.

I think he's misunderstood reductionism too. Reductionism isn't about saying "only the lowest level detail matters", it's saying "the lowest level detail explains the higher levels".

<comment><USER7> > Cells are machines made of molecules.

That's a theory, not a fact.

<comment><USER8> Care to share an alternate theory?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Anyone interested in a more scientifically sound treatise of cellular biology and from a computational perspective should instead read "Wetware: A computer in every living cell" by Dennis Bray. It's very approachable and, despite its unfortunate title, has nothing to do with the absurd anthropomorphising suggested in the posted Brian Ford paper.

</comment><comment><USER10> Much of the money spent on increased resolution in electron microscopy is wasted? What a crackpot indeed. This was written before the resolution revolution, but still...

</comment><comment><USER7> I can't recall now where I read this, but it's a very interesting idea: Your life is the life of your cells.

Everything we can do is something cells can do writ large.

Senses: we can see because our cells can see. Likewise for taste, vibration, heat/cold, all twenty-seven of them (I think we're up to twenty-seven human senses.)

Digestion? Cells. Movement? Skeletons? These are all things our cells do.

There is nothing we do that is not done by our cells.

So why not intelligence?

Why not self-awareness?

</comment><comment><USER11> The concept fits. Consider MENACE (Machine Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9c-_neaxeU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9c-_neaxeU)

If cells operate in a similar fashion, where adaptation to externalities encodes itself into a durable surface of arbitrary pockets, then we have a recipe for inert systems exhibiting variable degrees of behavior, which is capable of evolving over time.

This doesn't solve for sentience, but it does solve for expressive adaptation to fit into complex, hostile environments.

<comment><USER5> Congratulations. You have invented evolution and differential gene expression.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This reads like scientific fanfiction.

While I always appreciate novel and iconclastic ideas in biology, this makes leaps and bounds of logic without supporting evidence.

</comment><comment><USER5> Initial thoughts on reading the abstract: what a crackpot.

There's a good reason to sub-cellular structures and interactions: we need to have a reductionist's understanding in order to better understand the whole. We never would've had any real insight into the cell, or much of our modern day medicine, without all those researchers putting in hard, arduous hours into studying the molecular mechanics of single proteins.

Ford would apparently have us see the cell as a antropomorphised black box, attributing all behaviour to 'cellular intelligence'.

<comment><USER13> It gets better, read the section on cellular memory

<comment><USER5> Wow

<comment><USER14> What?

<comment><USER5> He suggests that cells are intelligent, and have a memory, and that this is the reason why a middle-aged man started liking classical music after having a donor organ from a violinist.

<comment><USER14> Cells are intelligent. And have a memory. I'm a microbiologist, studying bacteria (single cells), and let me tell you - these things are true.

The organ transplantation thing seems far fetched and probably BS, but the idea that someone's mood could change after an organ transplant is not that far fetched. My mom studies transplantation and I know a bit of immunology as well. Organ transplantation stimulates an immune response and in turn release of various cytokines into the blood, which could travel to the brain and affect mood. Inflammation in the brain is linked to many mood disorders.

The worst thing about the article is it's way too long, I think the author must like to hear himself talk. I'm also not sure of why he dismisses quorum sensing. Surely the "whole" does not stop at the single cell level. There's the whole community, etc..

<comment><USER5> > Cells (...) have a memory

He didn't seem talking about genomics or epigenomics, though.

> Cells are intelligent.

Define intelligent. I don't see a mechanistic response unit, no matter how sophisticated, as intelligent.

> Inflammation in the brain is linked to many mood disorders.

That is, however, extremely different from starting to like classical music because your donor was a violinist. He wasn't talking about mood disorders, but specific preferences.

<comment><USER14> Upon re-reading the organ transplant section, you're right that he says some crazy stuff. However, what he says should be experimentally testable, which means it's a valid hypothesis. I don't think the evidence he provided is anywhere near sufficient to support his claim though.

> I don't see a mechanistic response unit, no matter how sophisticated, as > intelligent.

Can you provide an example of an "intelligent" system that is definitely not a "mechanistic response unit"?

> He didn't seem talking about genomics or epigenomics, though

Proteins can hold memory too. Not as stable as DNA except maybe for amyloid fibers like those in prions. But it's not out of the question.

<comment><USER5> > Can you provide an example of an "intelligent" system that is definitely not > a "mechanistic response unit"?

Sure, intelligent systems do by definition have a mechanistically responsive element at its base; they're made of matter, after all. However, that doesn't mean that every system which is able to respond to changes in its environment is ipso facto intelligent.

The neurons in the brain are not what makes a brain intelligent. It's the emergent meta-structures formed by neurons which allow us to think the way we think.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


OpenSolaris Governing Board mulls forking - <AUTHOR> http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/343315/opensolaris_leaders_unnerved_by_oracle_silence/

<comment><USER2> Some people wanted a board that wasn't beholden to Sun, but maybe they got more than they bargained for: a board that's completely disconnected from the development of the project it supposedly governs.

Also, doesn't OpenSolaris have public Hg repos and nightly builds?</comment>


Ask HN: Serve static content from serverless AWS lambda function - <AUTHOR> We have an express+React typescript app that is executed from a serverless endpoint which is intended to ultimately move to AWS lambda.
The React bundle is served as static content along with its css, js etc files.
React app is hosted inside a single serverless project. The same is exposed from serverless.yml config as a function named static-router:
static-router:
    handler: src/server.handler
    events:
      - http:  ANY /
      - http:  ANY /{proxy+}
So, on my local, it works absolutely fine! All the static content along with the index.html are getting served to the browser using serverless-offline
Static content served
However when I push the same to AWS using serverless deploy - all the static content is not getting served. Refer to this link: https://xjfxfyosml.execute-api.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/dev/
How do I allow serving static content from the Lambda function which were working perfectly on my local?
What is missing here? <comment><USER2> This question is probably best asked on StackOverflow.

I can't tell you why this problem is happening but you should consider uploading your static assets to S3, or you'll be paying for compute time when S3 can do it for cheaper or potentially free, and without burning your execution allowance.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe Serverless Components could help? The backend component should be pretty easy for this use case:

[https://github.com/serverless- components/backend](https://github.com/serverless-components/backend)

<comment><AUTHOR> @eahefnawy This is not for static pages. This is for web frameworks like express/hapi etc

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sorry, not familiar with this architecture. But isn't the common pattern here to just host the react app on a CDN? Then the serverless backend could just focus on fulfilling API requests instead of assets.

</comment><comment><USER5> [https://github.com/serverless- components/nextjs](https://github.com/serverless-components/nextjs)

</comment><comment><USER6> host your content on S3 as a website and front it with CloudFront. Use Lambda just for 'api' in your case.</comment>


A Graph Processing Stack - <AUTHOR> http://engineering.attinteractive.com/2010/12/a-graph-processing-stack/

<comment><USER2> Interesting. Had not heard about most of these projects before.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you read? (And Yellowstone is a supervolcano) - <AUTHOR> A few days ago a collegue mentioned that she was going to visit Yellowstone next month. Remembering some details from a chapter in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything on the park, I attempted to explain to her that Yellowstone was, in fact, a supervolcano.
The problem was that I couldn't remember many details other than that Yellowstone was a supervolcano, that it was due to erupt, and that if it exploded we'd all be in a lot of trouble. Frustrated that I didn't remember more than that, I went back and found the following from the book:
"Yellowstone sits on top of an enormous hot spot, a reservoir of molten rock that rises from at least 125 miles down in the Earth. The heat from the hot spot is what powers all of Yellowstone's vents, geysers, hot springs, and popping mud spots. Beneath the surface is a magma chamber that is about forty-five miles across-roughly the same dimensions as the park-and about eight miles thick at its thickest point. Imagine a pile of TNT about the size of Rhode Island and reaching eight miles into the sky, to about the height of the highest cirrus clouds, and you have some idea of what visitors to Yellowstone are shuffling around on top of."
At one point a few months back I read those lines, and yet all I remember now is "Yellowstone is a massive supervolcano." I read an entire chapter and that's was all I could explain to someone; very few specifics.
Two questions: When you read do you remember specifics or just the big picture? Has anyone found any good ways to improve their ability to remember details like this? <comment><USER2> I think a lot of it has to do with your interests. For example, you're a HN reader and you come away with "Yellowstone == supervolcano." A new mom would probably read the quoted text and think "Yellowstone is dangerous, don't take the family there." A kid who is into fireworks and explosions might remember "TNT the size of Rhode Island, cool!"

When I read, I usually just remember the big picture plus the small details that I personally find fascinating.

<comment><AUTHOR> When you read, what percent of the information do you think you actually retain?

I acknowledge that might be the wrong way to look at it though. The unconscious mind probably picks up a lot more than we think and that knowledge enables us to make connections that we previously would be unable to do.

<comment><USER2> There are trade offs between reading time and reading comprehension. For example you can skim through a short story in one minute and come away with 75%. Or you can read through the same story in 5 minutes and come away with 90% (made up numbers).

If I were taking a test with limited time and a lot of reading, I might choose the speed reading because it's most "cost effective". If I were studying, virtually unlimited time, and trying to retain the information, I would go with the latter. If I were just reading for entertainment, it would probably be something in between (which might end up being slower and retaining less).

I agree that subconsciously we probably pick up a lot more than we realize.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I've also read that book and had a similarly spotty recollection until last week. The Yellowstone supervolcano is irrelevant to my life and I can't do anything to prevent it. If it erupts in my lifetime, then I'll care a lot, but I can't predict that so it's not worth worrying about it. I was reminded of it last week when I saw my little sister for the holidays: she's a geologist and was wearing a t-shirt that referenced it. Family asked and she went on at length about it, more than Bryson does in that excerpt. It's relevant to her life in a way it isn't (and hopefully never will be) to mine.

Don't feel bad about not remembering unimportant things.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you want to learn from a book (as opposed to memorising a shopping list or something) then the advice is always the same: get an overview first, then notice the details. Facts seem to need an overall framework in which they can "live". Without it, they get lost.

A standard technique goes like this: read just the first and last paragraphs of each chapter. Then read the first sentence of each paragraph of the first chapter. Then read the actual chapter as fast as you can (don't focus on details or bits you don't understand). Finally, go through it one last time and make notes. Now go on to the next chapter.

However, if you truly want to memorise an astounding number of facts (e.g. a list of a thousand pieces of information, or all the common words in a foreign language), then you need to use sophisticated mnemonic techniques. It takes a little practice, but you get surprising results very quickly. For example, after about 15 minutes practising the techniques in this book, [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Use-Your-Memory-Understand- Improve/d...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Use-Your-Memory-Understand- Improve/dp/1406610186/), I was able to memorise the order of a shuffled deck of cards with about 95% accuracy. It wouldn't have taken more than a few days to learn to memorise several decks at once with 100% accuracy.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hi, I was on the Bryson train....

there are a good many techniques to enhance memory, most usually deal with some form of visual imagery. I'm pretty sure this hinges on the idea that a very large proportion of the brain is given over to visual processing, so one would assume that capturing a visual image of an idea would better help one to recall that idea many years in the future. And the image of the gaping maw of a spewing super-volcano, is pretty hard hitting. That's probably why it eclipsed the details and left you with the "bigger picture" as you so unconsciously put it ;)

for instance, do you remember what Coprolites are? probably not, and probably for a good reason, they are Fosillised Dino turds.... not a worthwhile image for association, methinks

;)

but they are also esoteric, so I wouldn't get caught up about not remembering what you consciously don't attend to. Association is a powerful tool, and you would probably surprise yourself if you could see everything you _can_ recall about things that hold your attention well.

</comment><comment><USER6> I find remembering the images that the text created helps me recall the smaller details. For example, using the size of Rhode Island and the height of cirrus clouds easily painted a vivid image in my head. I'll remember that image in the future and the context it was used, but not necessarily the smaller details like "125 miles down in the Earth", or "forty-five miles across".

However, if I want to remember those smaller details, then consciously linking them to the vivid image makes recalling them a lot easier whenever I recall the image.

I believe this is the same reason why learning new languages is much easier when we're surrounded by people who speak them. When we can link pieces of the language to various interactions in the real world, our brain then has visual stimuli to connect various bits of the language with in our brain. Of course everyone is unique and what works for one person may not be optimal for the other.

</comment><comment><USER7> Yellowstone has seen a lot of quake activity lately, btw.: [http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital- commerce/2009/01/05/yell...](http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital- commerce/2009/01/05/yellowstone-supervolcano-earthquakes-scientists- react.html)</comment>


Ask HN: Easiest service for a storefront for subscription-based products? - <AUTHOR>

We are launching a subscription-based (monthly charged) product, and have no online storefront or billing service. What is the easiest way to get an MVP up and running? I am thinking Shopify + Chargify. Any other ideas? <comment><USER2> [https://recurly.com/](https://recurly.com/) is a good billing service for monthly payement.</comment>


Nokia's dirty secret: The untold story of a production-ready tablet from 2001 - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitoday.fi/vimpaimet/2014/04/16/nokias-dirty-secret-the-untold-story-of-a-production-ready-tablet-from-2001/20145483/66

<comment><USER2> Oh enough already of this "X company could've done Y product _decades_ ago" bullshit. The fact remains that:

1) they didn't - so who cares now?

2) they couldn't have done it as good as it was done now, _anyway_. So again - who cares about ifs and buts?

I feel these stories do nothing than just give the company some positive but _completely unwarranted_ PR. In fact, these stories should be approached from the opposite direction, like "look how _stupid_ this company was for not releasing the 'iPad' 20 years ago", or whatever. I feel that would be a more appropriate direction for these articles.

The truth is, anyone who will study Nokia's history in business schools years later, should only think how stupid Nokia was for either:

1) not going full steam with Maemo, their "modern" mobile OS, years before.

2) not adopting Android back in 2009 or 2010, when Samsung did, and when Nokia still had 2x Samsung's market share in smartphones. If they did, they could've retained their 60+ percent global market share in smartphones.

Doing either of those 2 could've saved them from near bankruptcy/acquisition. But they didn't. Therefore they were _stupid_ (and arrogant) - and _that 's_ how history should remember them, if new companies are to _learn_ anything from that.

Approaching this from "look how _awesome_ Nokia was for almost building the iPad more than a decade ago (yet still almost going bankrupt)" is the wrong way to look at it.

<comment><AUTHOR> No one yet has voted up, 1 hour in, so you're in luck :-)

I don't think the article paints Nokia as awesome, I think it further paints them in the way you mentioned - which how I assumed people would interpret it. If anything, it shows a company with lots of innovation from the staff, but a lack of direction from the management (much like Xerox in the early days of desktop computing).</comment></comment>


Experimental CLI with I/O and file lookup reduction - <AUTHOR> Clisiah is an CLI experiment. The goal with this module is to reduce I/O and file lookup, and quickly as possible return the located files.<p>Github: https://github.com/zubuzon/clisiah <comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/zubuzon/clisiah](https://github.com/zubuzon/clisiah)</comment>


Show HN: Strategy maps for software development – now free for solo users - <AUTHOR> http://www.systemmeasure.com <comment><USER2> In response to HN feedback, you can now use systemmeasure.com as a solo developer for free.</comment>


Ask HN: Nigerian entrepreneurs : How do you deal with PayPal restrictions? - <AUTHOR> Do you have a workaround ? Or you just use another service ? Other nationalities with similar issues please feel free to chime in. <comment><USER2> I'm Nigerian and also about to make use of flutterwave for processing payments with my SaaS.</comment>


EBay Cuts 7% of Workforce, Agrees to Standstill with Icahn - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-21/ebay-s-marketplace-struggles-as-it-faces-future-without-paypal.html

<comment><USER2>
       "They bought back a lot of shares, they added one of Icahn's employees to
       the board, they are cutting costs -- those are the things investors care
       about more than the actual performance of the company," said Gil Luria, an
       analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc., who has the equivalent of a hold rating
       on the stock.

Seeing it explained that way is amazing. Meanwhile, ebay is losing ground in ecommerce. But don't worry, Donahoe (and Icahn) got paid.

<comment><USER3> > Meanwhile, ebay is losing ground in ecommerce. But don't worry, Donahoe (and > Icahn) got paid.

Ebay is an abstraction about which no one actually cares fundamentally, they only care about it as a means to an end. If investors are getting paid (and a general stock buyback means more than those two got paid), they are getting what they care about out of eBay.

Investors care about performance only as a means to get paid, not because they care about the abstraction that they are investing in independent of what it brings them.</comment></comment>


The Indian Miracle-Buster Stuck in Finland - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26815298 <comment><USER2> From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanal_Edamaruku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanal_Edamaruku)

"In March 2012, Edamaruku investigated a report that a crucifix at Our Lady of Velankanni church in Mumbai was dripping water from the feet. His research indicated that the dripping was caused by capillary action from a clogged drain.

In April 2012 the Catholic Church in Mumbai filed a complaint under Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code in several police stations around the city."

If you are Catholic, please write to the Mumbai Archdiocese to withdraw the complaint : [http://www.archdioceseofbombay.org/](http://www.archdioceseofbombay.org/)

EDIT: Hmmm, more digging reveals a different story. From [http://thehumanist.com/march-april-2013/blasphemy-free- speec...](http://thehumanist.com/march-april-2013/blasphemy-free-speech-and- rationalisman-interview-withsanal-edamaruku/)

"Catholic leaders even disputed the scientific validity of capillary action. In the face of our documentation, they later found it prudent to modify their position, ignoring the facts and customizing it as a political weapon."

"However, the auxiliary bishop of Mumbai made official statements in the press saying that he publicly "rejoiced" and praised the "courageous" Catholic laity leaders who had filed police complaints against me."

But from here : [https://youtu.be/TfJ6_ftih0s](https://youtu.be/TfJ6_ftih0s), it looks like he made disparaging remarks against the church and goaded people to raise cases against him

<comment><USER3> > In April 2012 the Catholic Church in Mumbai filed a complaint under Section > 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code in several police stations around the city.

I would like source that the Catholic Church filed the complaint. The Wikipedia article leads to a source from the OP's article. Here is what the source says

> In the following weeks, three police stations in Mumbai took up blasphemy > cases filed against him by Catholic groups under the notorious Section 295a > of India's colonial-era penal code.

Apparently, they are some Catholic groups and not the Catholic Church. However, the real culprit here is the Catholic Secular Form (CSF)

> the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), one of the groups that made the initial > complaint, still insists it will press for prosecution should he ever > return.

That said, the Catholic Church are not absolved of their blame either. The church wanted an apology - case drop barter solution

> Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai tried to broker a solution by calling upon > Edamaruku to apologise and on Catholic groups to drop their case in return.

In any case, the Catholic Church does not seem to have made the complaint. However, one should still write to the Catholic Church to urge the groups like CSF to unconditionally withdraw their complaints.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This has had to effect the Diocese financially, including the local law enforcement and politicians. I can only imagine that this statue was their poor attempt in monetizing a so called "Miracle". Hence the venomous attack and persecution of a man who's only crime was to expose the Truth. Now these people have seen their revenue stream dry up and are furious.

The Vatican itself should investigate the people in the Diocese who have instigated this sinful and hateful act. I would like to see the Pope take this matter up personally and invite this gentleman to Rome.

Disclosure: Catholic

</comment><comment><USER5> Sometimes when this story comes up what is NOT made clear is that the church complaint is not that he debunked the miracle but that he said they where purposefully profiting off something they knew was false.

One could argue they did and it is a distinction without a difference. It is slightly different though than the spin in headlines of this story which makes it sound more outrageous. The headlines often say the legal threat is to do only with him debunking a miracle.

</comment><comment><USER6> "..he was getting threatening phone calls from policemen proclaiming their intention to arrest him..".

This is the disturbing thing, more than the threats he received from the foolish religious groups. An utter failure on the part of government, law and democracy.

<comment><USER3> > An utter failure on the part of government, law and democracy.

The lack of law enforcement in India would be her biggest barrier to achieve anything significant.

<comment><USER7> Or is it ? India has its own weird 'Political Correctness', you basically cannot offend religious feelings of people. If there is a group complaining, they consider it disturbance of peace or harmony. I can completely see where the Bishop told some councilor or connected guy in his congregation and some power broker trying to muzzle this dude by exerting influence on Police saying that, this guy is insulting Catholicism etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> So stupid. People would literally rather drink toilet water than accept the truth? The Indian police routinely doesn't do anything to protect people that are being attacked (physically or otherwise) by large groups because politicians pressure them to do nothing (to not lose votes).

<comment><USER9> There's democracy.

<comment><USER10> Damn.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> He should send a complaint to the Pope. I don't believe Francisco would agree with the local catholic representatives and could rebuke them.

</comment><comment><USER12> This guy reminds me legendary James Randi [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Z7KeNCi7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Z7KeNCi7g)

<comment><USER13> Wonder if they know each other, seems like they would have something to talk about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> There is a great interview of him in this podcast: [http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/258](http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/258)

</comment><comment><USER15> As an Indian, I feel ashamed.

</comment><comment><USER16> Could the fakir be brought up on attempted murder charges?

<comment><USER17> I guess as much as someone pointing a toy gun at someone else while going "pew! pew! I swear this is a real gun!"

<comment><USER18> Isn't the difference there that in your example the person clearly did not intend to kill anyone?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is there a current update on this guy? This was written in 2014.

<comment><USER20> I found some recent articles interviewing him:

[http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-09-06/news...](http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-09-06/news/66268240_1_rationalist- movement-indian-rationalist-association-elimination)

[http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/all- pm-h...](http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/all-pm-has-to-do- is-call-rationalism-part-of-our-ethos/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Thankfully this article squarely places the blame on the Catholic organizations. In Indian media, Hindu groups become the scapegoat for abuses of intellectuals.

<comment><USER15> Well Hindu groups did kill Dabholkar, Pansekar etc.

<comment><USER21> The difference is that the Catholic groups are considered mainstream and even "secular". There are many Hindu fringe groups, including the ones that occupied Mathura land for months, but they are not considered "secular".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> James Randi needs to help this guy...</comment>


Hottest temperature on Earth recorded in Death Valley - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53788018 <comment><USER2> I generally have the feeling that hot months are moving forward since a few years, while the summer has become more intense much earlier. When I was a kid (~20 years ago) it was normal for me in southern Germany to have enough snow in December to build snow men. In the last 10 years this has barely ever been the case. Instead, February and even March became much colder than previously. But all in all the winter shortened, in my personal perception. By now we have really dry and hot June months which I did not experience before.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Hottest temperature on Earth recorded in Death Valley

(Footnote: Wrong of course. You can find much higher temperatures on earth and those have been thoroughly measured of course.

Hottest climate registered, or hottest weather would made a better title)

> What could be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth? > 54.4ºC

If we speak of natural processes in the earth surface, the correct answer should be (probably) lava's temperature: 1200ºC. Man has created furnaces that work at even higher temperatures. I don't know where is the record at this moment.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Hottest temperature on Earth recorded in Death Valley

(Footnote: Wrong of course. You can find much higher temperatures in places around any active volcano. Hottest climate registered, or hottest weather would be a better title)

<comment><USER4> Even higher temperatures in a lightbulb. Or if that's not natural enough, in a lightning bolt.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> At night in Death Valley, the stars are simply amazing. No clouds or even moisture in the air and no light pollution.

Back in 2006? I drove across the country (and through D.V.) in an old Porsche.

</comment><comment><USER6> Relevent xkcd what-if:

[https://what-if.xkcd.com/152/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/152/)

Time for another a World Meteorological Organization expert panel!

"I'm gonna go jump into one of those toxic pools."</comment>


Ajax-widget based "CMS" is online: Patapage 1.0 - <AUTHOR> http://patapage.com

<comment><USER2> I hope moving entire websites of information into customized lightboxes isn't the future of CMS's.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's a really nice idea, and well implemented, but it takes content away from the site/hides it with js, so it's not so useful for SEO.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are aware of the SEO problem: in fact Patapage is not meant for building the "core" contents of your site, but for collecting the discussion / searches etc. about it. We are also working on the SEO problem - see section 4.4 of the user guide.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I tried the demo and my frame-breaker broke me out...

<comment><AUTHOR> That will break on the demo - which is a trick to show your site "overlayed" by Patapage, and cannot work on all sites. But that does not mean that Patapage will not work on your site.

<comment><USER4> No, of course, I was just flagging the point that it works via frames and so people wanting to try it would want to be apprised of that, 's'all.</comment></comment></comment>